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February 24, 2021
Hello! It is Wednesday; we hope yours went well.:)
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Top News
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new record today after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his intention to maintain ultra-low interest rates and continue the bank’s asset-purchase policies. The WSJ has more here.
Australian legislation effectively requiring Facebook and Google to pay news outlets for content cleared its last major parliamentary hurdle, capping a multiyear effort that could set a global precedent for regulating the tech giants’ relations with publishers, notes the WSJ.
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Meet Smash Ventures, the L0w-Flying Outfit That Has Quietly Backed Epic Games Among Others
When in 2018, Smash Ventures showed up as an investor in a $1.25 billion round for Epic Games — reportedly the largest ever investment in a video game company at the time — it was the first time many had heard of the investing outfit.
When the brand showed up again last summer in an even bigger round for Epic — last August, the games giant announced $1.78 billion in fresh funding at a post-money equity valuation of $17.3 billion — a diner near Epic’s Cary, North Carolina headquarters that sells “smash waffles” started getting calls from reporters, says Eric Garland, who used to lead venture and growth deals for The Walt Disney Company after selling his company, BigChampagne, to Live Nation in 2011.
“Some reporters really turned over rocks,” he says.
Garland knows this, he says, because he cofounded Smash Ventures with Evan Richter, a former member of Disney’s corporate strategy and business development team (and who, before that, was an investor at Insight Partners).
The pair say they weren’t trying to duck the press after striking out on their own a few years ago; they were mostly just trying to get their firm off the ground, which they’ve seemingly done and then some. First, there’s the newly closed $75 million debut fund from strategic partners and notable investors like Kevin Mayer, the former CEO of TikTok and the former Disney executive; Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull; and journalist Willow Bay, who is now dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Yet it’s just a small piece of what they have assembled.
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Massive Fundings
Bitwise Industries, a nearly eight-year-old, Fresno, Ca.-based company seeking to bring more underserved communities into tech, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Kapor Capital led the round; other investors include JPMorgan Chase, Motley Fool Ventures, and ProMedica. Fast Company has more here.
Emotive, a three-year-old, L.A.-based conversational commerce texting startup has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round that values the company at $400 million. It was led by CRV, with participation from Mucker Capital, TenOneTen Ventures and Stripes. TechCrunch has more here.
Klarna, the 15-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based buy-now-pay-later payment platform, is raising between $800 million and $1 billion in new funding at a $31 billion valuation, says Bloomberg; that's roughly triple where the company was valued after its most recent round in September, notes the outlet. More here.
Madison Reed, the nearly eight-year-old, San Francisco-based hair-color company, has raised $52 million in new funding led by earlier backer True Ventures. Other backers in the round include Goldman Sachs, Motley Fool Ventures, Portfolia Rising America Fund and Portfolia FirstStep Fund, along with other previous investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures and Shea Ventures. The company has now raised $199.5 million altogether, says founder and CEO Amy Errett tells us. Forbes has more here.
Malta, a 2.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based energy storage system company that spun out from the special projects group of Alphabet, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by methanol producer Proman, with participation from Facebook and Asana cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and earlier investors Alfa Laval of Sweden and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Orna Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of engineered circular RNA therapeutics, has raised $80 million in Series A funding from MPM Capital, Taiho Ventures, F2 Ventures, PAGS Group, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Astellas Venture Management and Kite Pharma. FierceBiotech has more here.
RecargaPay, an 11-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based a mobile payments company focused on Brazil, has raised $70 million in Series C funding. IDC Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital co-led the round, joined by ATW, LUN Partners, and Experian. TechCrunch has more here.
Truvian Sciences, a six-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that says it's developing an automated diagnostic system to provide lab-accurate results in 20 minutes for a comprehensive suite of health tests, has raised $105 million in Series C funding. Investors included TYH Ventures, 7wireVentures, and Wittington Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Wallapop, an eight-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based online marketplace where people resell their used items and items like crafts that they make themselves, has raised €157 million ($191 million) at a valuation of €690 million ($840 million). Korelya Capital, a French venture fund backed by Korea’s Naver, led the round, joined by earlier backers Accel, Insight Partners, 14W, GP Bullhound and Northzone. TechCrunch has more here.
Xilio Therapeutics, a nearly five-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based biotech developing tumor-selective immunotherapies, has raised $95 million in Series C funding. Rock Springs Capital led the round, joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Deerfield Management Company, and RA Capital Management. FierceBiotech has more here.
Yuanfudao, a nine-year-old, Beijing, China-based online tutoring platform, is raising "at least" $1 billion at a valuation of more than $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company is backed by Hillhouse Capital and Tencent, among others. Boyu Capital and DCP Capital are among its newest possible investors, says the outlet. The latest fundraising comes less than six months after a $2.2 billion round that valued the startup at $15.5 billion, the most among edtech companies globally, Yuanfudao said at the time. More here.
Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings
Blueshift, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco-based customer data platform, has raised $30 million in Series C funding. Fort Ross Ventures led the round. Other investors included Avatar Growth Capital and earlier backers SoftBank Ventures Asia, Storm Ventures, Conductive Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Contra, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based professional network for freelancers, has raised $14.5 million. Unusual Ventures led the round, joined by Cowboy Ventures and Atelier Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Dispo, a two-year-old, L.A.-based retro photo-sharing app co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrik, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital at a valuation of about $200 million, says Axios. More here.
EarnUp, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based consumer fintech company that says it intelligently automates loan payments, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round, joined by SignalFire, Blumberg Capital and Flourish Ventures. More here.
Everdrop, a two-year-old, Munich, Germany-based maker of dissolvable cleaning tablets that can be dropped in water to form a cleaning spray, has raised €18 million in Series A funding led by Felix Capital, with participation from HV Capital and Vorwerk Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Hubilo, a nearly six-year-old, San Francisco-based virtual and hybrid events platform that promises access to real-time data and analytics, has raised $23.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Balderton Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Katana Graph, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup that helps businesses analyze and manage unstructured data at scale, has raised $28.5 million in Series A funding. Intel Capital led the round, joined by WRVI Capital, Nepenthe Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, and Redline Capital. VentureBeat has more here.
Optimism, a year-old startup focused on the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain network, has raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The Block has more here. Coindesk meanwhile wrote about the company's origins last year.
Parkside, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based stock trading and clearing platform for brokerages and digital banks, has raised $24 million in Series A funding from Mubadala Capital, Peak6, FinTech Collective and Enlight Growth Partners. More here.
Redox, a six-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based company whose software lets health care apps securely share data with the big electronic medical records systems, has raised $45 million in Series D funding led by Adams Street Partners, with participation from Avenir and earlier investors Battery Ventures, .406 Ventures, and RRE Ventures. More here.
Symbio Robotics, a six-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based company that develops robotic systems and software for advanced manufacturing, has raised $30 million in funding led by ACME Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse Ventures and The House Fund. SiliconAngle has more here.
Zelros, a five-year-old, Paris, France-based startup whose tech helps insurance advisors to up-sell and cross-sell personal insurance products, has raised raised $11 million in Series A funding led by BGV. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Aquarium, a year-old, Bay Area-based startup from two former Cruise employees that wants to help companies refine their machine learning model data more easily and move the models into production faster, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital. Y Combinator and a bunch of angel investors also joined the round, including Cruise co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan. TechCrunch has more here.
Finix, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based, well-funded software company that says its mission is to make every company a payments company, has tacked on $3 million in funding from more than 80 “traditionally marginalized” investors to diversify its cap table. “This is very personal for me as a founder of color — making sure we have a diverse representation of people in our investor base,” says Richie Serna, the company's Mexican-American founder and CEO, to TechCrunch. More here.
FloorFound, a year-old, Austin, Tex-based retail returns management system, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by LiveOak Ventures Partners, with participation from Flybridge Capital, Next Coast Ventures, 8VC and Schematic Ventures. Crunchbase News has more here.
Koffie Labs, a 5.5-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y. -based insure-tech startup focused on commercial motor vehicle insurance, has raised $4.5 million from Anthemis Group, Lerer Hippeau, 2048 Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures and C2 Ventures. More here.
Maple, a seven-month-old, San Francisco-based app for tracking and coordinating parenting tasks, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Inspired Capital, with added participation from Box Group. TechCrunch has more here.
MealMe.ai, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based app that invites users to compare prices and options across numerous local food delivery services, has raised $900,000 in pre-seed funding led by Palm Drive Capital, with participation from Slow Ventures and CP Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Next Gen, a year-old, Singapore-based food startup that will launch its plant-based “chicken” brand, called TiNDLE, in Singaporean restaurants next month, has raised $10 million in seed funding from investors including Temasek, K3 Ventures, EDB New Ventures (an investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board), NX-Food, FEBE Ventures and Blue Horizon. TechCrunch has more here.
OptioLend, a two-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based online commercial real estate lending marketplace that aims to improve the loan application and financing process for borrowers, brokers and lenders, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by the Schottenstein Family Office, with participation from Loud Capital and MLG Ventures. More here.
Patch, a year-old, San Francisco-based company whose API can be leveraged by businesses to programmatically calculate their carbon emissions and make any transaction climate positive, has raised $4.5 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from earlier backers VersionOne Ventures, MapleVC and Pale Blue Dot Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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New Funds
Boreal Ventures, a new, Quebec, Montreal-based venture capital fund that's dedicated exclusively to tech startups in Quebec, has launched with $26 million CAD ($20.7 million USD) in funding. The outfit counts among its investors the Government of Quebec through Investissement Québec, Teralys Capital, Desjardins Capital, BDC Capital, Hewitt Group and École de technologie supérieure. BetaKit has more here.
Kapor Capital, the venture firm focused on funding social impact ventures and founders of color, is raising a $125 million fund. Notably, it will be the first time the firm includes outside investors; historically, the capital it has committed has come directly from Kapor founders Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein. TechCrunch has more here.
Nexus Ventures, a 15-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based cross-border venture fund focused on the U.S. and India, is raising up to $450 million for its sixth fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
Oak HC/FT has closed its newest fund with $1.4 billion in capital commitments, its biggest fund to date. Overseen by general partners Annie Lamont, Andrew Adams and Tricia Kemp, the outfit, spun out of Oak Investment Partners in 2014, is focused exclusively on healthcare and fintech -- two very hot areas of investment. Its previous funds closed with $500 million, $600 million and $800 million in capital commitments, respectively. TechCrunch has more here.
Primary Venture Partners, the 16-year-old, seed-stage venture firm focused exclusively on investing in New York-area startups, has raised $150 million in its third and largest fund to date. It separately announced $50 million in capital commitments for its second "select" fund, which the firm will use to invest in its portfolio companies' later-stage rounds. The firm’s portfolio includes New York success stories like Jet.com (acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion), Mirror (acquired by Lululemon for $500 million) and Latch (planning to go public via SPAC soon). TechCrunch has more here.
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Exits
MyHeritage, a 17-year-old, Israel-based profitable online platform that invites people to test their DNA and track their family lineage and claims some 62 million users, is being acquired by Francisco Partners for a price that TechCrunch reports exclusively is $600 million. More here.
Fry’s Electronics -- a national chain and Silicon Valley institution -- is shutting its doors. The company cited "changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic" in a statement.
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Going Public
A blank-check company backed by AOL cofounder Steve Case has merged with Berkshire Grey, a nearly eight-year-old, Bedford, Ma.-based a robotics and AI logistics company that had raised $263 million from NEA, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank and Canaan Partners, according to Crunchbase. The deal with special-purpose acquisition company Revolution Acceleration Acquisition Corp. would value the robotics company at $2.7 billion. The WSJ has more here.
Joby Aviation, an 11-year-old, Santa Cruz, Ca.-based company that's still in the prototype phase of developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing passenger aircraft, will become a public company through a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners, a special purpose acquisition company from well-known investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus. The combined company, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will have a pro forma implied valuation of $6.6 billion. This one is unusual in a number of ways, including structurally. As notes TechCrunch: "While blank-check mergers typically put in place terms to prevent investors from pulling out their money, this one places a five-year lock up on all major shareholders, including on the SPAC side, to ensure significant long-term alignment. The deal also includes an earn-out structure with full vesting that cannot be realized until the share price reaches $50 per share, which implies more than a $30 billion market capitalization."
The SPAC boom is spreading to China. Hony Capital, the private equity firm, is preparing to list a special purpose acquisition company in the U.S. that will make it one of the first Chinese PE giants to jump on the global SPAC bandwagon, reports The Information. More here.
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People
Ahead of an expected IPO, Instacart has added two new board members: Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook App, and Barry McCarthy, former CFO of Spotify and Netflix. The appointments represent the first independent members and first woman to join the board of the nearly decade-old company. Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta reached out to Simo via a cold email, he tells CNBC.
As WSJ reported earlier this week, WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann and the company's early investors are closing in on a deal in which SoftBank, WeWork’s majority shareholder, would buy about $1.5 billion of stock from them, including nearly $500 million from Neumann. That's half what SoftBank previously planned. Now the WSJ says SoftBank is poised give him an additional $50 million special payout and extend by five years a $430 million loan it made to him in late 2019. SoftBank is also slated to pay $50 million for Neumann’s legal fees. More here.
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Tweet of the Day
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Essential Reads
Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant is moving into Western Europe, beginning in the U.K., Germany, and France, Bloomberg reported today. The move sent shares of Uber, which is available in numerous European countries, down slightly.
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Retail Therapy
Joel Peterson, the former chairman of JetBlue (as well as a longtime VC and a professor at Stanford's business school), is putting his 11-acre Woodside, Ca., compound on the market. The price: $49 million.
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